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The Main Theme of the 48th Karol Szymanowski Music Festival, to be held in Zakopane from 25 July to 3 August 2025, will be the Fugue.
The key to shaping the program by Piotr Sałajczyk, President of the Karol Szymanowski Music Society, was the Symphony No. 2 by the Festival’s patron, which will be performed during the festival’s coda by the Beethoven Academy Orchestra under the baton of Jean-Luc Tingaud. The final movement of the work is a fugue. This musical form can also be found in many other compositions by Karol Szymanowski, which will be performed in Zakopane at the turn of July and August, including: the Piano Sonata No. 3, the Prelude and Fugue in C-sharp minor from 1909, and the String Quartet No. 2.
The Festival will be preceded by an extraordinary jazz prelude – Dominik Wania’s improvisations, Hommage à Szymanowski.
Performances will take place in historic interiors of Zakopane and will feature well-known Polish and international soloists and ensembles, including the Silesian Quartet, Clarinection Ensemble, Romania’s finest string quartet Arcadia Quartet, the vocal sextet proModern, and the String Orchestra of the Slovak National Philharmonic led by its concertmaster Ewald Danel.
We will witness world premieres of works composed specially for the Festival as part of the "Compositional Commissions" program:
– On 31 July, the Vienna-based ensemble Airborne Extended will premiere the composition new york by Andrzej Kwieciński.
– On 1 August, the Silesian Quartet will give the world premiere of Fuga by Stanisław Bromboszcz, President of the Katowice branch of the Polish Composers’ Union.
– Violinist Maria Sławek will present a unique program of fugues for solo violin and will premiere Nigunetta by Marcin Zdunik.
Counterpoints to the main program will be midday concerts with changing programs. The festival will also include a concert in the spirit of historically informed performance, featuring appropriate Baroque repertoire interpreted by Arte dei Suonatori with Katarzyna Drogosz on a historical piano.
Accompanying events will include a lecture by Professor Marcin Trzęsiok entitled The Musical Form of the Fugue: Between Order and Chaos, as well as the art exhibition Przenikanie góry (Mountain Interpenetration).
Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund, as part of the "Music" and "Compositional Commissions" programs implemented by the National Institute of Music and Dance.
The project was carried out with the support of the Małopolska Region.
Co-financed by the City of Zakopane.
Strategic partners of this year’s Festival:
– National Museum in Cracow
– Pasja Music Salon
Media patronage: Polish Music Information Centre POLMIC
